What happens next? How Liverpool will cope with Suarez departure slnnews_With £75million at their disposal and Champions League football to boot, a look at what the Reds could do with the money Luis Suarez is on his way to Barcelona Now Liverpool FC have agreed a £75m deal with Barcelonafor the transfer of Luis Suarez, Brendan Rodgers and the transfer committee face a huge dilemma. The dilemma is not just who to replace Suarez with, but how to replace him altogether. READ: Luis Suarez £75m deal to Barcelona agreed Over the years, plenty of clubs in world football have lost their star players for eye-watering fees. But how those fees have been used, and the success that followed, vastly differs. VIEW GALLERY Suarez’s move immediately evokes memories of Gareth Bale’s world-record transfer to Real Madrid last season; it also offers a firm reminder that money doesnt guarantee success after Tottenham’s misguided attempts to replace him with any player available. Spurs is not an example to follow - but there are many precedents, both good and bad, which may help the Reds decide what to do with the money. slnnews Option one: Reinvest in a lot of players in different positions Case study:Tottenham Hotspur (2013/14) Player sold:Gareth Bale (£85m, Real Madrid) Players bought:Paulinho (£17m, Tottenham), Nacer Chadli (£7m, Twente), Roberto Soldado (£26m, Valencia), Etienne Capoue (£9m, Toulouse), Vlad Chirches (£8.5m, Steaua Bucharest), Christian Eriksen (£11.5m, Ajax), Erik Lamela (£26m, Roma) What they did:Although Bale’s move to Madrid was not completed until until the final day of the transfer window, Spurs prepared early and brought in seven new players for over £100m, taking the option of strengthening the entire squad in defence, midfield and attack. Soldado was the only established star who joined, while Lamela and Eriksen were two of the most wanted midfielders in world football. Paulinho, fresh from a good Confederations Cup with Brazil, was also an exciting acquisition. How it turned out:Andre Villas-Boas lost his job by December after a 5-0 drubbing to Liverpool at White Hart Lane as the club failed to recover from the loss of the talismanic Welshman. Soldado struggled to score in the Premier League and Lamela spent his season homesick; only Eriksen was an unquestionable success. With so many new players, team cohesion on the pitch lacked, and the Portuguese boss didn’t get much chance to integrate them; furthermore, with no direct replacement for Bale designed to do what he did, the team lost a lot. Tim Sherwood, who took charge after Villas-Boas’ dismissal, didn’t fare much better. What this would mean for Liverpool:With Suarez gone and a small squad, the Reds could look to add players all across the pitch. But with the style of football Brendan Rodgers plays, only a certain calibre would bring success - that would come with quality, not quantity. On the other hand...Roma received 30m euros for central defender Marquinhos, who moved to Paris St-Germain, last summer. With that money, in came some excellent - and relatively low-key - players like Kevin Strootman, Mehdi Benatia, Gervinho, Adem Ljajic and Mattia Destro. Having finished sixth the previous season, Roma ended up second, playing some wonderful attacking football. Option two: Don’t spend the majority of the fee; allow other current players to flourish Case study:Manchester United (2009/10) Player sold:Cristiano Ronaldo (£80m, Real Madrid) Players bought:Antonio Valencia (16m, Wigan), Gabriel Obertan (Undisclosed, Bordeaux), Mame Biram Diouf (Undisclosed, Molde), Michael Owen (free transfer) What they did:After losing Ronaldo, who scored 66 league goals in the three years before his move, United decided to tweak their system and instead focus on maximising Wayne Rooney’s potential by building the team around him. While Valencia came for a big fee from Wigan, it represented less than a quarter of what United received for their Portuguese star - and he was a completely different type of wide man than the all-action Ronaldo. Diouf and Obertan were signings with the future in mind, while Owen was an opportunistic purchase. With 24 clean sheets the previous season, the defence remained untouched.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 12:57:04 +0000
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